AMERICAN TRIO

I read with interest Gregg Barrios’ article, “Ritchie Valens’ Roots” (July 19).

As an 18-year-old in 1959, I mourned the death of Valens, not as a Latino rock ‘n’ roller, but as part of a triumvirate dying. Barrios writes, almost parenthetically, that the “crash also killed two Texas rockers.”

I have always considered Valens and Buddy Holly as significant contributors to rock ‘n’ roll in a more far-reaching sense than in an ethnic or regional context.

Maybe Don McLean said it best.

JOSEPH J. WOJCIK

Claremont